Stranger Danger
by alexsonnn
Summary: RUSSIAN ROULETTE SPOILERS. What if Yassen had ran into a certain teenage boy as he was sitting in the car outside Alex's house?


He was sitting behind the wheel of the Rider household. He was meant to kill Alex Rider. He had come all this way. So, why was he having such trouble getting out of the car. The housekeeper was gone. Had been for quite some time. He tried to tell himself he didn't know the layout and that there could be alarms. But he knew he was only fooling himself. If he truly wanted to kill the teenager in that house across the street a few alarms wouldn't stop him. He was one of the best.

No, he knew the real reason. John Rider. He had been ordered to kill John Rider's son. His only child. His and the woman from Sacre- Coeur's little boy. No, this would be one kill he would refuse. If SCORPIA wanted the job done so bad they could send another assassin. He would have no part of it. He had already killed Ian Rider. The least he could do is spare the child. The last of the Rider's. Best to not let the legacy die so soon anyways.

He was just about to turn away from the house and crank the car when suddenly a black and white checkered football came soaring right into the opened driver's side window. If it had been a regular man the ball would have hit them straight into their face. But Yassen's quick refexes had him stopping the ball centimeters from his face. Peering in the direction of where the ball came from he saw a spiky haired teen's shocked face a short distance away.

"Sorry, Mate!" The teen called, gesturing him to return the ball to him.

Not wanting to cause more attention than the boy already had Yassen sighed silently and got out of the car with the ball.

He quickly walked the ball over to the boy.

"Here." He he said bluntly, holding the ball out to the teen.

"Thanks. It didn't hit you did it? Really sorry about that."

"No, it didn't hit me. Have a good day." Yassen turned away wanting to be far away from where he was. This was not safe. If Rider was to peer out of a window he would see him standing right in the middle of his street talking to some random kid. Definitely not good.

"You were looking at Alex's house. Are you a friend of Ian's? Bloody horrible what happened to him. Alex hasn't been at school lately. I'm his best friend and he hasn't even returned my phone calls. Jack said he was _sick._ I reckon he's just really upset about his uncle. I've decided to come and try to cheer him up. If you wanted to come in I'm sure-"

"No, I'm not a friend of Ian's. It's a Monday morning shouldn't _you_ be at school yourself?"

The boy rolled his eyes.

"What are you, my mum?"

"If I was I would have warned you about talking to strangers so casually."

"Sir, are you implying you're a serial killer?"

Yassen couldn't help himself.

"What if I was?" He questioned.

The boy was quiet for a moment as he contemplated this.

"Really starting to regret throwing my ball at you now." He muttered.

"You're saying you did that on purpose?" Yassen questioned.

The boy shrugged.

"You looked lonely. Thought I'd start a conversation."

"And you risked breaking my nose to do that." Yassen stated.

"I'll admit it's not my best attempt at making friends." The boy relented before holding his hand out.

"Let's try it again. I'm Tom Harris. What's you're name?" He asked cheerfully making Yassen wonder what exactly was wrong with this boy...The way he acted without a fear...his humor...his lack of regard for his schooling...it almost reminded him of a certain short and ginger haired boy from his past...

_No._ What was happening here?

"Tom, you need to get into your friend's house before your stupidity gets you killed."

"Damn, that's pretty...threatening. You know, you're not very subtle for a serial killer."

Yassen almost couldn't believe this. He was getting lectured on being subtle about killing from Alex Rider's best friend. He had to end this. Quickly.

"I'm very late for a meeting because of this. I have to go." He stated quickly not giving the teen the option of replying as he turned and began walking back to the car.

"Bye Have a good serial killer meeting! Say hey to Jack the Ripper for me!" The teen called after him. Yassen didn't acknowledge him he just threw himself into his car and turned the ignition over and pulled away from the curb, not even pausing to look back.

Tom snorted at the man's manner and turned to Alex's house to see the boy peering out the front door.

"Hey, Al'!" Tom called, running up to meet his best friend.

"Who were you talking to just now?" Alex asked. He had only saw the back of the man but the stance and gait reminded him of someone...

"Oh, just your friendly neighborhood serial killer. Now let me in. I brought games and movies. We're going to have a blast."

"Shouldn't you be at school?" Alex asked, giving the boy a look.

"You're the second person to ask that. No, I should not be at school. I should be here. Cheering you up. Now, come on." Tom said pulling him inside the house and to the sitting room to begin their day of lazing on the couch.

**()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()**

_**~Sometime between Crocodile Tears and Scorpia Rising~**_

"Hey, Alex what's this?" Tom asked as he pulled a manilla file out from under Alex's bed.

Figures. Tom was nosy as hell when he came to Alex's things.

"When I found out MI6 had a file on me I demanded they make me a copy. I was actually surprised they gave me one. I figured they'd give me the whole 'it's too secret for us to just hand an official file over to a teenager' line." Alex answered, not even moving to grab the file out of his friend's hands. Everything in there he already knew...actually, he probably knew more than what was in the files.

Tom idly flipped through a couple of papers before stopping on a picture with wide eyes. Looking at it he could see it was a picture of Yassen.

"Tom, what's wr-"

_"Oh, for fuck's sake! I threw a football at an assassin's head?!"_


End file.
